


To Have a One

by Aethelar



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-12
Updated: 2014-02-12
Packaged: 2018-01-12 02:37:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1180921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aethelar/pseuds/Aethelar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a rare gift to have a One, a rare and wondrous thing. </p><p>Kíli was 26 when his One was born, and his family did not stop celebrating for days. Every new dwarf he met, every stranger passing through, Kíli hovered and fussed anxiously in case they were it, they were who he was waiting for. </p><p>They never were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Have a One

It was a rare gift to have a One, a rare and wondrous thing.

 

Kíli was 26 when his One was born, and his family did not stop celebrating for days. Every new dwarf he met, every stranger passing through, Kíli hovered and fussed anxiously in case they were it, they were who he was waiting for. 

They never were. 

Kíli was 60 when he cried in the night, despairing of ever finding his One. 

Don’t cry, his brother pleaded, cradling Kíli close. You are young. You have years yet.

 

Kíli was 77 when he met his One, though it took him longer to recognise him for who he was. But when he did, when that moment of recognition struck and he realised – Kíli felt he had been waiting his whole life for this, had been _born_ for this one purpose. 

Kíli was 77 and Bilbo was 51 when he carved the courting beads and braided them as best he could into Bilbo’s short curls. It was too soon, far too soon by the dwarrow courting law, but Bilbo was his One and the dwarves understood. Bilbo had been hesitant, unsure; he was a hobbit, and Kíli was a dwarf, and was this wise? But Kíli was never more certain of anything in his life, and waved Bilbo’s concerns away with the invincible confidence of the young. Bilbo smiled shyly and fingered the beads with an almost disbelieving wonder, and Kíli laughed. 

When the company gathered after their mad escape from the Goblin Town, Kíli searched for Bilbo. He was frantic, desperate, his fear giving him the courage to stand up to his uncle and say that he was not leaving without Bilbo, and the company understood. It was a terrible thing, to lose your One. But then Bilbo was there, red faced and out of breath and pressing a hand to his ribs as he ran down the hill, and Kíli swept him off his feet and cried into his hair. 

Kíli worried, after that. Dwarves were strong and sturdy, made of stone and metal and the heat of a forge fire. Hobbits were soft and delicate, made of earth and loam and the sweetness of the summer harvest. He worried in the Mirkwood, when Bilbo became listless and wan but still refused to take Kíli’s share of the rations. He worried in the dungeons, when Bilbo crept around unseen and hid from the elven guards. He worried further still at Laketown, when Bilbo was flushed with fever and wracked with coughs. 

But for all his worrying, Bilbo survived, and comforted Kíli when his distress got the better of him. And when they reached the secret door and Bilbo prepared to steal from a dragon and Kíli’s nerve broke, Bilbo was patient, and Bilbo understood, but he was firm and he would not be dissuaded. Kíli waited for him as though for the world itself, and he did not breathe until Bilbo returned. 

When the dragon had gone and Erebor was theirs, Kíli kissed Bilbo among the mountains of gold. They were triumphant, they were unbeatable; not even a dragon could destroy them. Kíli was 77 and Bilbo was 51, and they were both young then.

 

Kíli was 77 and Bilbo was 51 when Thorin fell and Fili fell and the air was thick with death.

Kíli was 77 and Bilbo was 51 when Bilbo raised Sting and stood firm and Kíli yelled and screamed and begged him to run away. 

Kíli was 77 and Bilbo was 51 when Kíli was crowned, and all the dwarves whispered in the corridors that they were very young. Kíli’s eyes traced the scar down Bilbo’s chest and his hands traced the designs carved into Bilbo’s cane, and he did not feel young.

 

Kíli was 100 and Bilbo was 74 when the restoration of Erebor was finally complete. It was a jewel, a wondrous thing of beauty, the dwarrow kingdom of the mountain ruled by Durin’s line, and its king was in his prime. The feasts were seemingly endless, but Kíli laughed and drank and danced at each and every one, and regaled Bilbo with the stories of what he had missed by going to bed so early. Bilbo smiled and leant on his cane, and maintained that he could have outdanced the lot of them in his day. 

Kíli was 125 and Bilbo was 99 when Bilbo stopped accompanying him to Dale. Bain, son of Bard, was sad to see him absent from the council meetings, but Kíli maintained it was temporary. A minor thing – the old injury flaring up in the winter cold, nothing serious, nothing permanent. Kíli brought more blankets to their room and banked the fire, and tried to smooth the wrinkles from Bilbo’s brow, and refused to believe that it was anything other than a minor thing. 

Kíli was 143 and Bilbo was 117 when Bilbo began to forget where he was. The council grumbled and the council dissented and finally broached the subject of a new advisor. Kíli would have none of it – the position belonged the king’s consort, it had always done so and it always would. Yes, the council answered him, but the king’s consort is not usually so old. 

Kíli was 145 and Bilbo was 119 when Bilbo began to forget who Kíli was. Kíli loved him as much as he ever had, as fiercely as he ever did, and in his more lucid moments Bilbo would say that it was something of a gift. That every day he would fall in love as though for the first time, and every day he was made the happiest hobbit in middle earth to learn that Kíli loved him back. 

  

Kíli was 147 and in his prime and Bilbo would have been 121. The ceremony was solemn, and Kíli’s eyes were dry because he refused to believe that Bilbo was gone.

 

Kíli was 151 when the men of Dale enquired as to whether the king would marry again, and Kíli almost declared war on them for it. He did not know who it was that took the men aside and explained that Bilbo was his One and Kíli would take no other, but he was thankful that they had. He had little to be thankful for these days, and the designs on Bilbo’s cane had almost been worn smooth from the time he spent running his fingers over them and remembering. 

Kíli was 154 when the Council of Elrond was called to decide the fate of the One Ring that had been in Bilbo’s possession for so long. Kíli thought of the elegant spires of Rivendell, of the passage through the Misty Mountains to reach them, of the hobbits he had been told were gathered with the elves. He sent Gimli, son of Gloin, to the meeting, and told him that the Shire folk were precious to the dwarves. Gimli nodded, and said nothing of the hobbit who had made his king seem old before his time. 

Kíli was 155 when the Easterlings attacked. He fought well; he was tall for a dwarf, and strong, and in his youth he had taken the Lonely Mountain from a dragon and defended it from a hoard of goblins and orcs. Nothing could get past his guard or land a mark on his armour and nothing escaped his blade. 

Kíli was 155 and still young, for a king, when he deemed the battle won and his presence unnecessary. He shifted his stance and shifted his grip and swung his sword again, and he smiled as his head hit the ground and the world slipped quietly away. It was a terrible thing to live without your One.

 

Kíli was 155 and eternity stretched before him when he sank to his knees and cried in the grand halls of the dwarrow dead, and despaired of ever finding his One. 

Don’t cry, his brother pleaded, cradling Kíli close. 

Kíli was 155 and in his prime and Bilbo would have been 129, and had Bilbo been a dwarf, they would have been alive. Had Bilbo been a dwarf, they would have lived together for a century yet, then retired together to the final embrace of the mountains and the stone. 

But Bilbo was a hobbit. Bilbo danced in the fields of sunlight and Bilbo was of the earth and the loam and the sweetness of the summer harvest, and Kíli would never see him again.

 

It was a rare gift, to have a One, a rare and terrible thing.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've taken a couple of liberties with the afterlife of Middle Earth; as far as I'm aware, all of the races should go to the Halls of Mandos. However, since the dwarves were made by Aulë and not by Ilúvatar, I thought it would make sense for them to have different afterlives.
> 
> The Easterlings' attack is canon; they attacked Erebor in 3019, after the Council of Elrond was called but before the ring was destroyed. The dwarves were victorious and pushed the Easterlings back, though Dain died in battle and his son became King Under the Mountain.
> 
> As for how the ring got to the Council of Elrond after Bilbo's death and why there were hobbits involved, I'll leave that up to you. It was probably Gandalf's fault.
> 
> Also, I have a tumblr! Come find me at [aethelar.tumblr.com](http://aethelar.tumblr.com)


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